California ISO wants to improve natural gas-electric coordination

The California Independent System Operator board of governors approved a plan to improve gas-electric coordination and reduce the risk of electric delivery issues associated with the moratorium imposed on the Aliso Canyon natural gas storage facility.

The revised draft final proposal includes improvements to better align California ISO markets with current conditions on the gas system and to enable power plant operators to better manage their gas burns to avoid gas balancing penalties.

The ISO also proposes to reserve transmission capacity if necessary to take into consideration gas or electric system conditions, which will help ensure lines have flexible capacity margins to respond to real-time changes.

[Native Advertisement]

The improvements to the power market design can be quickly implemented and will help in the short term to deal with expected heavy grid use during the upcoming summer months but the ISO reported that longer term market design changes, if any, should be considered.